Why do restaurants make you reuse your flatware from one part of th meal to the next?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I eat at a lot of middlin’-priced restaurants, the kind where dinner for two runs forty or fifty bucks with tip. The placesettings start with a fork, knife, and spoon, and if you use any of them for your appetizer, the server will set the used implements aside while removing the appetizer plates.

This happens a fair amount to my mom, too, and she and her husband eat at considerably more expensive restaurants than my wife and I eat at. My mom’s practically gotten obsessive about making the waiter take away her used fork, knife, or whatever between courses, and having them bring her clean flatware with the next course. Mom’s like that.

I don’t really care that much one way or the other. What I wonder, though, is just what the restaurants gain by pushing you towards reusing the same flatware all the way through the meal? Given that it would surely make a better impression if they took away the used flatware along with the used dishes at each remove, and replaced it with clean flatware, there must be a good reason why they don’t do it that way, one that I’m just not seeing.

It’s been a long time, but I’ve run a restaurant dishwasher, and it’s hard for me to see that the cost of washing, say, 20% more forks and knives would raise their dishwashing costs more than trivially. And while they might need to have a slightly larger supply of flatware on hand to compensate for a larger part of their inventory being in the dishwasher at any given time, we’re talking flatware, not silverware here. Restaurant-grade flatware just can’t be that expensive in bulk, and unlike dishes, it never breaks and only occasionally gets bent beyond usability. So once you’ve paid the extra $50 or whatever to purchase enough extra flatware, you’re set. And you get to make a better impression than your competitors.

So how is a restaurant saving money by making me use the same fork for both appetizer and entree? Or are they just being lazy? I’m hoping we have someone here in the restaurant biz who can answer this question with more than speculation.

2

It may not be hugely expensive to buy more flatware and do more dishes, but the cost isn’t zero. Why wouldn’t a restaurant prefer less dishes to wash?

3

Another reason – nowhere near enough customers care about it.

That said, any reasonable restaurant will replace your used flatware on request.

4

They could wash zero dishes by finding another line of work entirely, if that’s their goal, but it isn’t.

The thing is, the restaurant prospers by giving diners an enjoyable dining experience. If you’re a restaurant owner looking at this strictly as an economic proposition, you’d be thinking, “what things am I already doing that cost the most, but add the least to that experience?” and “what things am I not doing that I could do, that cost the least, and add the most to that experience?”

These restaurants aren’t avoiding every avoidable expense. Almost all of these restaurants have some sort of decorative centerpiece on the table, even if it’s just a vase with fake flowers. Some of these restaurants have tablecloths or cloth napkins. Most of these restaurants are ethnic restaurants of one sort or another, since we like ethnic food, and they generally pipe music appropriate to that ethnicity over their sound system. So they’re willing to spend dollars they don’t absolutely have to spend, in order to enhance the dining experience in various and sundry ways.

The cost of owning and washing more flatware isn’t zero, but it’s pretty damned close. And every time you go to such a restaurant, the fact that they’re essentially asking you to hold on to your dirty flatware is noticeable - either you have to move your fork off the appetizer plate yourself before they remove the plate, or they have to take the fork and set it on your bread plate, or they take plate and fork both, and you find yourself without a fork when the entrees arrive.

Like I say, it doesn’t bother me, but it’s an ever-present reminder that they’re not doing something as right as they might do, and that would cost them little to rectify.

So I return to my question: why are they not removing and replacing used flatware at each remove of the plates? Why do they not consider this an enhancement of my dining experience that’s worth the minute added cost, especially given the other things they’re spending money on to enhance my experience?

And how many customers care about the vase with the artificial flowers?

Yeah, but it’s a nuisance to have to ask. If it’s something that matters to you, you have to deal with it practically every time you go to a restaurant. And then you become all obsessive about it, like my mom. Trust me, that isn’t pretty.

Still, this is all speculation. Speculation’s nice, but it isn’t what I’m looking for. Any restaurateurs hanging out in GQ this afternoon? I’d love to get an informed answer that tells me what this equation looks like from their side of the transaction.

5

You do not have to ask. Just flip it onto the floor. They will certainly replace dropped flatware. :wink:

I agree with your OP, though. One of the cool things about fine dining is having course-specific silver.

6

Quite honestly, I’d feel that it was reducing my enjoyable experience by having them remove my flatware between courses. I don’t want them to take away my fork and knife, unless it’s designed for just that course. It would seem an unneeded inconvience and one more service interruption. The soup spoon can be removed after my soup course, fine. But I only need/want one knife all meal.

It’s a balance between interruption and expectations. I’ve never been to any restaurant that didn’t cheerfully replace flatware when asked.

7

:confused:

What I was getting at was that the number of people who care about using the same flatware for multiple courses are too small to effect changes in The Way Things Are Done.

I don’t mean to come off as snarky or pejorative, but what you’re asking about is an individual eccentricity. It’s probably not occured to many restaurateurs that this is even an issue. Speculation on my part? Certainly – but I’ll stand by it based on my own experience in the restaurant business.

8

For the same reason waiters don’t recite an ancient Chinese proverb and bow before your meal- it’s a bizarre affectation that the general public doesn’t expect.

A recently used fork is not all that different than a clean fork. It’s not like the taste of your first-course salmon is going to stay on it to contaminate your roast beef. Generally you have a plate or clean tablecloth to rest it on- in any case, your fork was resting on that same tablecloth before you picked it up. Nobody would ever dream of switching forks between courses in their own home. Most hosts would probably be annoyed if you insisted on a new fork for a new course. It’s just not something people expect.

Some nice restaurants will lay out a few different implements for each course before a meal, but that is a throwback to Victorian days where people competed to see who could spend the most money laying out a spread of esoteric silver eating implements at parties- not any practical meal-enhancing reason. But this is not an easy way to present food- waiter have to be particularly on-the-ball as they have to remove any silverware you won’t end up using during the meal- an act that can be intrusive if you waiter is not one of the best. Even the nicest restraunts now wait to bring out a dessert fork. Most waiters arn’t trained to give that kind of service, most people don’t expect it, and providing it would add to labor costs with almost no increased revenue for the restraunt.

Also, you say you go to a lot of ethnic restraunts. Most ethnic restraunteurs probably arn’t familier with anachronistic European service expectations. A country that didn’t go through the whole “silverware as status” phase wouldn’t even have the concept of presenting massive amounts of forks and the whatnot. For example, in an Indian restraunt you can consider yourself lucky to even be getting silverware- the owners would likely eat the same meal without any. Why would you expect them to provide old fashioned French service on top of that?

9

:dubious: You do know that India was colonised by various European powers, including the French, the Portugese, and the British over the course of several centuries, don’t you?

Given the long historical relationship between India and the United Kingdom, which, incidentally, flourished during the Victorian era (its not for nothing that Queen Victoria was also titled Empress of India), a lot of Indians know full well about European place settings, and how, and more importantly, in which circumstances, to use cutlery, and how it should be set out. Also, given that curry houses have been around in Britain at least, since the 1700s, I think they’ve got the cutlery thing down pat now.

Whilst it is traditional in India, Pakistan, and parts of the Middle East to eat with one’s right hand, it is by no means the sole method of eating one’s food, and Indians, especially in the cities, will probably be as comfortable with a knife and fork as you are.

You know, fast food is meant to be eaten with your fingers. That doesn’t mean you don’t get cutlery in America.

10

This is the crux of the issue, I think. If the restaurant styles itself as “fine dining” then you should have a full placesetting to start your meal, and receive additional implements as needed for specific dishes. Fine dining is not about getting calories down your gullet, it’s about the experience.

Properly done silverware can actually enhance the experience, I think back on the way waiters on cruise ships do that job. It’s almost as though they are doting on you, making sure everything is just so for your next course. It’s quite nice.

If it’s just a place to go out to eat, you get a knife, fork and spoon, and unless it is filthy after your appetizer, you keep it for the next course.

There is actually a surprising amount of effort put into dishwashing. I have heard that during droughts, when they ask restaurants to not provide a glass of water unless requested, it’s not the water in the glass they care about, it’s the water to wash the glass because so much more is used.

11

That’s exactly right, and it’s a damned shame. Yet they still expect a 15%… oh, wait, this isn’t the pit.

You know the joke about how every waiter in Los Angeles is actually an actor looking for work. The upside is that the waiters there at least know how to ACT like a waiter.

12

Ahem. I’ve run a restaurant dishwasher.

You put a whole bunch of dishes on a conveyer belt, which feeds through the dishwasher. They’re designed to wash dishes in bulk; unless they’ve changed considerably since my younger days, one dish more or less doesn’t make the least difference.

Now. Anyone got any fact-based testimony, or are we still in speculation mode?

13

With all due respect … I’d think that even a highly experienced restaurateur would have to speculate on this. There likely isn’t a better factual answer than “I dunno – that’s never crossed my mind”.

14 
I think if you want the ultra-snobby, Emily Post-level fine dining experience, you have to go way higher than your middlin' priced restaurant.    That's essentially a Chilis or an Outback Steak house.     The staff will be pleased to replace your utensils if you want, but obsequious and excessive customer service isn't their selling point.

From a practical standpoint, different utensils for different courses is pretty much passe in middle class America.     Not only do most people not expect it, most of us don't even know that it used to be a custom.    I suspect most people would find it somewhat offensive in a putting-on-airs, conspicuous consumption, non-egalitarian sort of way.    

 So...most people don't expect it, it allows restaurants to serve more people with less staff (because they don't have to be running around with forks all the time), and there's no pragmatic reason why they should do it.
15

“I don’t know about the other waiters, but I use the spoon”.

16

So? I’ve worked in a restaurant, too. They didn’t have any sort of automated conveyor belt dish washing system. The dish washing system was a sweaty mexican guy.

I think you will be firmly stuck in speculation mode on this one. The only real fact is that most restaurant managers have not identified this as a way to make the restaurant more profitable.

17

Having worked in a restaurant, and tried to avoid using the dishwasher whenever possible because it leaves the user soaking wet, I have one idea why this might be.

A lack of silverware.

Washing silverware at most middling restaurants is a piddly affair. It’s cheap, and doesn’t really cost the restaurant anything, given the number of times that machine is going to be run every day anyway. So that’s not a reason to leave your silverware on your table.

But a middling restaurant probably doesn’t have enough silverware to seat every table in the house more than once*. They might have seats x 1.5 the amount of necessary knives, forks and spoons, but not much more, what with loss, damage, etc…

Doesn’t mean they can’t wash your silverware-- they could-- but then the concern becomes drying all the cutlery, and that takes time and room-- something likely to be in short supply.

[sub]* One night I was working at Pizza Hut we did not have enough forks for every seat in the house. Sad, I know…[/sub]

18

Oh? On the (admittedly rare) occasions when I serve a multicourse meal at home (usually holidays), I sure do put out multiple forks and knives for the multiple courses. I have yet to have a guest who didn’t know what to do with them.

Yes, I’d be annoyed at that, too, but not because I think that using multiple forks for multiple courses is out-of-date. Not embarrassing your host by pointing out perceived deficiencies in his style of entertaining is a much more important rule than any silverware custom.

19

Snerk! OK, there are two of us who remember that joke. Good 'un.

20

Dishwasher speaking here. New flatware for each meal course is not a 20% increase, its 100% for each course. Spoon, fork, and knife is standard, add a coffee spoon and you got a 33% increase in utensils, etc. On a small scale this means nothing. However, when your serving a hundred people its HUGE (trust me). This brings me to your second point there. Having the flatware to accommodate a new set for each meal is easy and cheap enough for the establishment. However, the turn around time for the dishwasher to replace them is longer the more utensils you have. Sorting through a huge pile of utensils is tedious and time consuming; and usually one of the last things done. (The last restaurant I worked at left the sorting through the utensils until the morning.) Regardless, I’m not arguing here that restaurants making customers reuse their utensils is because of some altruism towards their dishwashers - they don’t.